What are the disqualifications of members of Parliament?

Question: What are the disqualifications of members of Parliament? [BJS 1975]

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Answer

With the 52nd Amendment to the Constitution, Schedule X was added and it contained the law of anti-defection. The Schedule X provides that an elected member of Parliament would lose his/her seat when:

1. He/She voluntarily gives up his/her membership of such political party
2. If he/she votes or abstains from voting in such House contrary to the direction issued by the political party to which he/she belongs without obtaining prior permission of the party or such act having not been condoned by the political party within 15 days of such voting
3. If an Independent Member joins a political party after the election is over
4. If a nominated member joins a political party after the expiration of 6 months since he took oath as a member.

There were exceptions to the Anti Defection law as well. This implied that even though a shift in party membership may happen with respect to an elected member, in certain situations, such elected member shall not lose his/her seat because of it. These situations are as follow:

• Party Split: The disqualification would not occur if the member that has defected, constitutes one among the group of other people from the same political party that has decided to defect and such group must not be lesser than 1/3rd of the political party’s strength in the House.
• Party Merger: Where two or more political parties have decided to merge by a 2/3rd majority of the total strength of the party in the legislature.
• Resignation of Speaker/Deputy Speaker, Chairman/Deputy Chairman from the Party Membership: Where a member of the Lok Sabha/Vidhan Sabha, before the election of a Speaker/Deputy Speaker or Chairman/Deputy Chairman, decides to forsake his party membership and becomes a non-party entity. These provisions would also not apply to such a person when, after serving their term in that position, he/she may join any political party.

In the G Vishwanathan v. The Hon’ble Speaker, Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly (AIR 1996 SC 1060) case, the issue that arose was whether a member elected to the House or Legislative Assembly who is expelled from his party can be considered to have defected if he/she joins another political party upon expulsion.

The Court decided that such an individual would be considered to have ‘voluntarily given up his/her membership to the old party’. This is so because even though such a person is an unattached member of the House after expulsion from his/her political party, in the eyes of the X Schedule, he/she is a member of his/her old political party only

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